Tags: Ben Fry

This highly informative and interactive graphic looks at the ups and downs of the successful American companies on the Fortune 500 list, all the way back to 1955. It’s been a wild and exciting ride. Ben Fry, the pieces creator, was inspired to create the graphic when he ran across a huge set of data tracking the famous index: he challenged himself to come up with a way of displaying those 84,000 data points in an easily viewed and navigated interactive piece. We think he did an excellent and informative job.

Tracked in the graphic are: rank on the list, revenue and profit. One interesting thing to notice is the clear effects of recession on some companies profits (as seen in Ford Motors below), while other companies are largely unaffected by the dips of the economy. Head over to Fathom, Fry’s information design company, to get a closer look at the graphic.…